let's talk about the retreat. Yucatan, Mexico, March 16th through the 20th this year, 2024, our inaugural event. Very exciting. This is Amanda. She is part of Project Yucatan. Project Yucatan is establishing the Bitcoin Beach of Mexico in Sisal,

right? And throughout the Yucatan. So our focus is mostly the Pueblos Magicos. So not just in Sisal, we're also in Mani and in Merida.

Amanda is on the ground making all the arrangements. It's going to be a magical experience. So we just want to talk a little bit about the retreat to give more details for people who are interested. And we'll ask each other questions. kick our question bucket back and forth to give people as much information as possible so they can make the decision to come and join us.

I love it. Okay, I have a question for you. Yes. I'm super honored and super excited that we're doing this together. But I do want to know what made you want to do a retreat in the first place?

Yeah, it's a couple of reasons. The first is as I was traveling around the country with Scott with HODL UP, which is the game that he designed to orange pill me, and we've been bringing it around to share with other Bitcoiners who are trying to orange for their family as a tool. So we've been traveling around to different meetups and events and such. And I just noticed that there are very few women present in a lot of these gatherings and the women who are present when I have conversations with them, they all express the same sentiment, which is it's very lonely being a woman in the Bitcoin space. Not only do you feel outnumbered when you go to these gatherings, but also within your own close knit family friend circle, it's hard to feel so excited and passionate about a subject and then have nobody else want to hear anything about it. So you can't talk to the people who you see every day, you go to these meetups and then everybody's nice. I'm not saying everybody's not nice. The men folk very wonderful. Everybody's passionate about this revolutionary technology and everybody wants to share it, but it is different when men get together and talk, they're masculine in their communication style. Women are a little bit different. Not one is better than the other. Just we talk differently and we connect differently. And I just felt what if we could get all the women together? What if we can, what if we can support each other in a way that only women can do for each other? So I started thinking about the gathering and I started putting out just feelers for different possible locations. And I was introduced to Amanda and we started talking about the magic of Yucatan, that whole region. That was one of the first things that sparked the idea for me was just my travels and conversations with Bitcoiner women and how isolated they feel in this space. The other thing is I will go on to Twitter. I guess it's called X now, but I will go on to X and I will read these posts and I mostly pay attention to women posts just because that's what I'm interested in. And I just find myself always coming away feeling really down because when you're in the Bitcoin space and your eyes have been opened, you've gone down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. You start to see everything so differently. You're seeing all the news differently. You're paying attention to what's going on in the monetary system. You're paying attention to what the politicians are saying and the implications for yourself through the trickling effect of the way the monetary system is set up. And I just, I feel so down. I don't think I have ever come away from Twitter, not feeling down. Yeah. And it's a, it's like something that I can't make non Bitcoiners understand why, because they don't see what we see. Yeah, so this retreat, it's so important, I think, for us to fill our own cup because we're passionate about this subject, we know we should spread the word, but if we feel dragged down if we feel low energy, then we can't do that work. So those two things sparked my idea for the women's retreat. And now I have a question for you. Because I actually have never traveled to Mexico and the things that I never, the things I hear about Mexico are usually about the resorts, Cancun and other places like that. So you started talking about the magic of where you live. And I was so intrigued. So I want you to tell people like, what is so special about where you live? There's

a lot that's so special. I know this is gonna sound biased, but you'll know and you'll be able to validate this when you get here, everyone that's coming to the retreat, but truly I started to come here well more than a decade ago, like well more than a decade ago. And I used to spend my winters here with my daughter because I've always been allergic to the cold. I started to explore here. But the reason why I did that was this seemed a pretty safe and cultural place. Because my daughter was young and I wanted her to learn new culture and to integrate. And there's not, when you dig in, there's not a lot of cities that you can find that, as a single mother, with a 12 year old, that you're going to feel, and you don't speak the language taking your child and after our first winter here, we started to come every single year. Because it, there's something, it's magical. It's the only way I know how to say it. I've lived in Bali and I've lived here. I used to live in Canada, I'll never do that again. But, I've lived in both. So, as you know, Bali is like retreat central, right? This is where most people go for their retreats. However, and there is a beautiful energy there. There's a manifesting energy there that is palpable. But it's different than here, like this is the Merida, the main city that we're in is actually the very first Mayan settlement ever. So this city was actually built by the Mayans, which is really cool to me because if you look into Mayan history and all the things that go back, like there's a lot of Mayan influence that's like really affected us all along the way. So we had like when I first started coming here, I was like, Whoa, that's where I went to Chichen Itza was much different back then. There wasn't, 1000 tourists at the pyramid. But back then when you went, you could feel an energy there. And I know this sounds silly, but it's legit is when you're here, you have to actually be really careful. yOu have to be careful on how you ask for things. Because you often get what you ask for here. You'll notice when you're here, it's weird. But it is, I just always call it the Mayan magic. Because it's like "manifestation nation" here. So like we have all the pyramids, we have cenotes, we have nature, we have a city. I think we're one of the safest cities in all of North America. Like definitely in the top three. I just don't know where we are in the top three. So for a city of over a million people, that makes it pretty special. I don't even lock my door, not gonna tell you where I live, but I don't even lock my door. You don't have to here like it's a special place. It really is. I think we have everything we're 20 minutes to the beach. We have the city like it's magical.

Yeah. Yeah, let's talk about the details of this retreat that we dreamed up together. So one of the things that I really want to achieve with this retreat is just the emotional space for women to reflect inwardly. We were talking before. I don't believe that anybody can give you answers that your body itself doesn't already have. And if you would just turn your attention inward, you'll get the answers that you need. You'll get the healing and you'll get the restoration that you need. But you can't do that if you're running your day to day life, because there's not that emotional space. The main goal that I have when I was dreaming up this retreat with you was just to be able to create that emotional space for women to reflect internally and find their own answers. And we decided to achieve that through different ways. So you want to talk about some of the magical places we're going to bring them to?

Yes. Okay. Top favorites. Okay. Can I give my number one favorite and then you give yours? Yeah. I don't know if they're different, but let's see. Okay. My number one favorite that I'm most, most excited about is doing Uxmal Pyramid with everybody together. Because actually I have goosebumps talking about it. Because to me, it's a really magical day. Because number one it's a pyramid that's still standing from all the way back. And it's not just a pyramid. It's actually a whole town. It's a town of pyramids. We can still walk to the top. We can still actually go inside the pyramid. There is it's manifestation energy there that's you can feel it. There's so much nature around, there's peaceful areas where we're going to be able as a group to have our own space where we don't have all these tourists around us and we can do some energy and manifesting together and then we're going to one of my favorite cenotes, which is pretty local. A cenote is actually A sacred water space. If you do some Googling about the Mayans it was a sacred water space. And I think for us, it's also a sacred water space. So after the pyramid of the magician, Uxmal will be going to do a cleanse with just us. So this cenote is not well known. It's not on the tourist route. It's like one of my favorite hidden gems that I love to share. There's going to be maybe 8 or 10 local people there and the rest will be us and we can have our time and space together. That's my favorite.

Yeah, that sounds amazing. My favorite, I think every single day is my favorite. I'm really looking forward to the day we will spend in Sisal. I was talking to Mercedes' daughter and she says she grew up in that area and every time she takes the boat to go into the flamingo habitat, she's blown away by the majestic feeling that you just swells up from within you. And that's one of the things that we really want to achieve from all the locations that bring you to is just that feeling that comes from within. And so really looking forward to that. I think that's going to be amazing. I feel like every day is my favorite.

I've made your connection, but our Sisal day is actually an experience that I haven't even experienced. So the company that's taking us out has actually done something really special for us that they've never done for anybody else. So I've never experienced it either. So I'm really excited. Yeah. I've experienced the flamingos and the boats. I do it often. I was there this weekend. Yeah. But what we have together is going to be different. So I'm really excited. And

Sisal is also where you guys are working to create Bitcoin Beach of Mexico.

That's our vision of the Bitcoin Beach, Mexico. We still have a ton of work to do there. We're just tipping the iceberg right now, but it's a pretty magical beach. It really is.

Yeah. And so we are just by us being there. Hopefully we are supporting your efforts bring attention there and hopefully spending Bitcoin there. And so I'm looking forward to that day. I'm also really looking forward to the day we get to go and tour the Mayan women's the honey farm.

Okay, can I just rip off that specific thing because you just made me think of something one thing that really felt when we were first connected to do this retreat together. There was one thing that I felt aligned with us here in Bitcoin Yucatan so much so. anyone that doesn't know our team leader is Mercedes. She is an incredible woman who was born and raised in Mexico and she's worked and lived all over the world with marginalized women. And when we were creating the idea for Bitcoin Yucatan, this is one thing that Mercedes said. Is that for us, women in Mexico is probably going to be the most substantial entry point because of how women think of how women work of how women take care of their families, how there's a cultural connection here where women are that are it. And so when you said I wanted to, you know, a retreat for women, I was once again I'm like, Okay, this is special so the women of Mani, so Mani, I call it Money in jokes, but the town is called Mani. It's a Pueblos Magico and we are working on hyper Bitcoinizing there as well. So it's along our route and Mercedes has been doing education with the women in the center. And these women literally run the town. Like they are the entrepreneurs they're the mentors. They're really amazing. And so this is where all the women energy of Bitcoin actually has been totally centralized, in this one area is that's really like the big basis of our project right now. So I think with us women being there together with the women of Mani, and when they see us as Bitcoiners and them as Newcoiners, I think it's going to bring a really awesome

connection. Yes, definitely. And also the honey is magical as well.

Oh, the melipona honey I try, I'm trying not to say it's honey these days because it's actually medicine. It confuses people. But the melipona is special, so you'll get to actually see how it's made. It's pretty cool.

Yeah. And then there's the other day that we are going to spend on a private beach by ourselves, our closing ceremony day. Okay. We have really special stuff planned. Are we

like giving out? I'm so excited for that day, too! That I think is going to be there's a reason why everybody's going to get a little pack of Kleenex in their little swag bag when they arrive, right? Like we have a special bag that's prepared for everybody on their arrival. And there is specific things that we've created in there that you're going to need along this week's journey. And that little pack of Kleenex for that last day that we have together I think is going to be really good because That day, I think with us being at the beach house removed from any other humans, it's just us. Like we are so removed from everybody else and we're right in front of the ocean and it's just us. So there's so much releasing that we'll be able to do after everything that we've experienced through the week. I think we're going to become the ocean. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And I was looking for a ceremony. We have so many, it's going to be special.

Yeah. What about the first day? Because the first day we're spending in the town of Merida, like the whole day, we're just going to be hanging out there. Tell us about that town.

Merida, you can look for yourself and Merida is a cultural city. So like I said, this was the first Mayan settlement. Then I don't want to get too far into history because I nerd out a bit. But when the Spanish came over and of course, there was a war that ensued and whatnot. And. Literally, the Mayans were pretty much pushed out of Merida into the smaller Pueblos, aka the Pueblos Magicos, that were Bitcoinizing at this time, whereas you had the Spanish came into the city and built these big, beautiful colonial buildings. It's like a whole entire city of these big, beautiful colonial buildings. And the pride and history in this town is next level. So we have rich culture. If you're a foodie, buckle up on day one. Because we can, literally it's fun to eat. You can eat at any little roadside stand. And it's food made with pride, made safely, made, in the Mexican way, but it all works. Everybody has pride in what they do. When we go to the park, families coming together and they'll bring their guitars and just start playing for people. You feel this, there's an energy of a city. But to me, it's like how cities are supposed to be. There's not sirens and lights, like we can actually all walk together. When the night comes low, everyone lights up, like downtown, there's music playing, people put like their tables at the restaurants out in the street. It's a really, it's a people place. Yeah. And we'll just be spending the day together. There's a part of our day where the roads are closed to the public for cars and stuff. And it's just bikes and walking. So we'll all be walking together. You feel there's like horse and buggies go down the street. Like you feel like you've stepped back in time. So it's like a technologically we're advanced, like we're not missing anything for a city. We're literally not missing anything, but you actually do feel like you step back in time. That's I think one of the coolest parts

Of Merida. So awesome. So looking forward to it. I can't wait to share it. Let's talk about some of the stuff that we have planned with the local brujas. Ah, okay.

Just to give you a little bit of a low back on what a bruja is, so there's like a brujo and a bruja. A bruja is like a woman healer, or if you ask the local Mexican people, they'll just say a woman witch. Or a man witch, and it's not a derogatory term, it's just how it's translated, but to us, it's more like a shaman. So you can look back in history, even go look into some like Don Juan and Carlos Castaneda, just to get your own little thing on there. But that goes back to the history of how shamans, brujos and brujas in Mexico have been using nature and plant medicine and energy for healing for so many decades. And it wasn't like Europe where they came and stopped everybody from doing that. Like this kind of thing, was it really apothecary has been alive and well here. So there's still like modern brujas and brujos. And so we're going to be doing a copal ceremony. Which is really special. Copal is a resin that you, I believe it's only in Mexico, but I, hopefully I'm not wrong. It might be in other places. But it's a it's a tree that's endemic to Mexico. And it's a resin that comes out, this resin has been used for years in energy cleansing, spiritual cleansing. Many women locally and brujas will tell you at 7pm in their homes, they'll do, they burn some copal, because any of the night spirits that come out to play will usually leave when these things happen. Yes, we're going to have some bruja time.

And just to emphasize, we're not doing the religious side of this for people who are concerned. This is just. This is apothecary as you're talking about. It's energy healing, energy release type of ceremony. So we're not diving into any of the local religious stuff.

Yeah. No medicines, just energies. Yes. energetic medicine, I guess is the best way to say it.

Yeah. And tell me about the Reiki session. Cause I'm really looking forward to that too. Have

you ever had a Reiki session

before? I brought my daughter to one and I watched from the side.

Okay. All right. I think there's a lot of people in this world that say they're a Reiki master. I studied Reiki or I did this, but I think you already have to have a little bit of a bruja to you to do that. Like you have to already understand and feel work with energies. So someone who is a strong practitioner in Reiki, like a truly strong practitioner can move your energies without touching you. And you can feel it. And I'm not trying to be super fluffy, but you literally can feel things moving inside of you. When you're having a Reiki session, but you're not being touched, your energy is being moved. And we have a Reiki practitioner that will be coming to spend time with us. Also, she'll be able to do some before and after sessions for anybody that needs to do any kind of releasing So Sometimes you can't get everything out on your own and you just need a little bit of help. So we're going to have that around as well. But this is just a moving of energy. They're not going to be, it's not a focus because we're doing it as a group. This is more like to get you in touch with the feeling of your energy, because you might not know where your energies are sitting. But if you have an ailment, you might not know that you have it, but once your qi has been moved, you're going to feel it. So that's what we're doing.

So cool. Let's touch on the the other aspect of the retreat, which is just the building of the friendship, spending time together and not in passing, not like a quick conversation in the hallway. Hi, how are you? How's life? But really experiencing all of these things together. We're going to have sharing circles. We're going to have breathing exercises. We're going to have journaling time. We're going to be really mindful about giving you the emotional space to not only connect with other people, but also to be introspective and connect with yourself. So we'll have evening stretches. We'll have morning breathing.

We have an afternoon quiet time. Yes. So lots of times to recollect yourself. Yeah. We're going to be spending a lot of time together. But yeah, there's things that are going to come up with us internally that you might just need to have a moment to yourself, or maybe you're so happy you just want to have a little cry and dance it out and you don't feel like doing it in front of others. You can go have your moment, but we're also going to be doing some of that together.

Yeah. Yeah. Looking forward to that. I

think we've created a lot of safe spaces.

And it's going to be a small group. That's the reason we kept it very small in number. We want everybody to be able to hop on the same shuttle and just be able to spend time together. But again, we're going to be mindful of your own emotional battery. Some people have more some people have less and that's fine. And we'll be really respectful of each other in that way. Let's talk about why we're requiring an application for this. Oh, yeah,

totally. I actually think that's really important. There's something that we all talked about separately. Yes. Which makes it pretty valid, right? Yeah. Do you want to explain a little first from your point of view? Yeah,

it's not a way for us to filter out people we don't want to spend time with that is not the reason at all. It's just we want to make sure our goals are aligned. So for example, if what you're looking for is a touristy kind of experience where you're hitting a lot of places checking them off and eating fancy food. Unfortunately, that's not what we're going to be focusing on. And if you're coming here looking for that, you're going to be really disappointed. And we don't want anybody leaving thinking, Oh, my gosh, I didn't get what I want. If you're looking for that deep connection, if you're looking for the emotional space to be introspective, if you're looking to connect with the Bitcoin action on the ground in Merida and general Yucatan area, this is the place for you. So we just want to make sure our goals are aligned and that everybody will be happy who comes on this retreat. And again, as I mentioned before, we're keeping the numbers small because we do really want this to be a friendship that you build that will last a lifetime. And in order for you to have that, you really need to be connected deeply and not just in passing and not in the huge group of people.

Another thing, just being on the ground that was important to me on this application. So some of the questions you'll see that are aligned with how we were thinking in the planning is a lot of people that are coming are, you haven't been here before. And you haven't experienced this. So it's important, I think for me and the rest of our Bitcoin Yucatan team, while we're planning is to make sure if you have, any physical limitations, that we have what you need. If you, so that you don't have to worry about, oh, when I get here, what if. If you have, if you have some kind of health reason you might need to see a doctor or something. We need to know ahead of time so we can help you with these things and organize it. This is supposed to be about you arriving, get to the hotel, and then you're full on bliss. So I think the application, if there's because all of our meals and stuff are included, right? So we need to make sure we have the dietary restrictions. If there's anything you don't like, we need to know ahead of time. This means, this is supposed to be an experience about bliss, so the more planning that we can do to make it blissful for you is better. I think that's why it was so important on my end.

Yeah, definitely. Let's touch on Casa Bitcoin because we didn't get to talk about that at all. It's within walking distance to the hotel.

It's definitely walking distance. It's still a bit of a stroll, it's we're not next door, but it's within Merida Central and it's a beautiful, enjoyable walk as well. So we'll all be walking together down to Casa Bitcoin. Casa, this will be our very first month, actually, that we'll be having people in and out of Casa Bitcoin is during our retreat. We actually have a full time club space that we're just in the middle of some last minute renovations before we can open to public. But, this is a hundreds of year old building that's a very historic building in the downtown in a beautiful neighborhood called Santa Lucia. So this is going to be our full time club space for us, because we haven't opened to public yet for the retreat is going to be our space. So this is just going to be nobody from the public will ever be in. And this is going to be a place where we'll be going to do some workshops together we'll be having some catered meals there together. We have a beautiful outdoor garden and there's also, like you had said, some places that, if you need a moment, you can have it. It's a three story building with eight rooms there's lots of spaces for that. I think it's going to be a great little central meeting place for us as well, when we're exploring in downtown. We could just slip in and out, get some water, have a drink, use the toilet, like all those things while we're downtown. I think it's going to be our nice little besides our fabulous hotel is going to be our second safe space.

Anything I've missed that we should talk about?

Oh, there's probably so many more. I think we need to come back again when we think about it. There's just so much that we have. We put a lot of heart and soul into this, right? So I think sharing the exciting details is going to come out in

bits, I think. Yeah. If you have any questions after watching this video, you can shoot a question in either our Telegram group. Hopefully you're part of that. If not, the link is below. And you can also just email me directly and I will find the answer for you. If we have enough requests, we can also do a live Q&A going forward. Just make sure you go and check out more details on our website at www.orangehatter.com/yucatan and there'll be more details there. The application link is there. And I think that about covers it. We hope that you can come and join us. It's going to be amazing.

Amazing I keep calling it bliss week. It's our retreat week, but I'm calling it bliss week because I'm really excited and I'm really excited to connect with more. Everything that was your reason is the reasons why I'm excited to. So thank you

so much, Amanda.

Yeah.